Tangles
"Ready to talk about it?"
Duo shook his head. Brown, loose hair swung about his shoulders at the motion and it made him wince as it brushed his face.
Heero sighed as he settled on the edge of the building with Duo, feet hanging three stories above the ground. Snow drifted down from a grey sky, covering the ground and powdering the rooftop. Heero could have said a lot of things, just then, but all of them amounted to 'I told you so.' He didn't want to hurt Duo that way.
"Do you hate me?" Heero tried instead.
Duo took a shuddering breath. "No... no... It's just... hard."
"Was there another way?" Heero wondered, knowing the answer, but needing to know that Duo truly understood. He held his breath.
Duo replied, "No. Moving train, stuck in a metal door, terrorists trying to fill me full of holes... Yeah, you did what you had to."
Heero let out the breath and it steamed in the chill air. It made Duo look sideways at him. He pushed the strands of hair behind one ear and moved closer to Heero. Their shoulders pressed together. Heero handed a rubber band to Duo. He stared at it for a long moment before taking it. Snapping it into place to make a pony tail, Duo frowned and swung his legs like a small boy.
"Bound to happen," Duo said at last. "An accident waiting to happen. You can go ahead and say, 'I told you so', Heero, since you were the one who saved my neck."
"Do you want the pep talk?" Heero wondered, hands working in his lap.
"No," Duo sighed. "Save it for something really important... like losing a leg."
Heero gently brushed a hand over the pony tail. "It's still... long."
"Length wasn't the point," Duo complained, but then shrugged angrily. "I guess... the point doesn't really matter anymore, anyway."
"You won't forget the past, just because you lost a piece of it that you can touch," Heero told him. "They... they won't disappear, the people you cared about."
Duo eyed him and then managed a smile. "Quatre tell you to say that?"
Heero smiled sheepishly. "Yes... I find words of my own lacking, right now."
"Me too," Duo said and stood up. He looked down, swaying a bit on the narrow edge as a chill wind picked at his clothes and stray strands of hacked hair. He stepped away and held a hand down to Heero, saying, "Maybe we don't need any?"
Heero nodded as he stood as well. Looking Duo over, he suddenly pulled him into a tight embrace, hands fisted in Duo's Preventer jacket. The kiss was deep and healing, mouths opening hungrily for deeper contact, and eyes closed on a shared sorrow that both of them wanted to chase away.
Duo leaned into Heero and draped an arm over his shoulders as they left the roof top together. He said with a soft chuckle, "Your 'words' are a lot better than Quatre's."